Sunday, May 12, 2013

Ethan Draddy, Scout Executive Post: Distinguished Eagle Scout and former Astronaut Dr. Tom Jones comments at 34th Annual Henry Rosenberg Distinguished Citizen Reception.I'm so pleased to join you tonight at the 2013 Henry Rosenberg, Sr.Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner, so important to increasing support forScouting in the Baltimore area. Other than representing you as an Americanastronaut on four missions to Earth orbit, being named a DistinguishedEagle Scout is the highest honor of my life.Boy Scouting skills certainly played an important role in preparing me forastronaut selection and for my four space missions. I used (and still use)compass, map reading, and orienteering skills during my years in an aircraftcockpit. Survival skills learned in Scouting were the foundation for theadvanced survival techniques I picked up in the Air Force and at NASA.Scouting taught me to remain cool under pressure, or in emergency situation,and gave me confidence I could perform well in a strange, stressful,wilderness environment. And space is the wildest place I can think of.Most important, Scouting taught me how to be an effective team member:taking responsibility for my own actions in pursuit of a goal, contributingto the success of my patrol, and taking on leadership responsibilities. Fromden chief, to patrol leader, through Broad Creek's summer Junior LeadershipTraining, and finally to Senior Patrol Leader, Scouting prepared me for thegreat team and leadership challenges I would face on and off the planet.In many ways, space flight is very much like a high-tech camping trip. Iencountered strange surroundings, few personal comforts, backpacking-styletrail food, the joys of sharing a "tent" in space with close friends, andthe unique challenges of personal hygiene "in the field." As in Scouting,that outdoors environment we call space also provided tremendously inspiringscenery, the rewards of working and achieving together, and the promise of anew, challenging adventure each day.A few months before my trip to the International Space Station, I watchedwith fellow Scouts as that outpost soared above our lakeside campsite in theTexas forest. Next to me was an astronaut friend, and Scout dad, who woulderect the first set of giant power arrays at the Station. Gazing skywardwith my Scout son at that fast-moving, brilliant dot arcing past the stars,I could hardly believe I would follow my friend just two months later. Itwas the kind of amazing opportunity I'd first experienced with the BoyScouts.About 38 percent of today's active astronauts have some level of Scoutingbackground. Of the 329 U.S. astronauts selected by 2013, 40 achieved Eaglerank--about 12 percent of those serving in the astronaut corps. Those Eaglesincluded such astronaut standouts as Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell of Apollo13, and Dick Truly, who later moved up to be NASA Administrator. Evidently,NASA's astronaut selection board strongly favors the qualifications thatEagle Scouts bring to their sky-high occupation.If our policy makers approve and fund NASA's ambitious plans, our nationwill soon be reaching out: to capture and explore a nearby asteroid, toscout for water at the poles of the Moon, to save the world from a rogueasteroid, and to search for life across the solar system. When an Americanexplorer leaves his boot print in the dusty surface of an asteroid, and setsfoot on the ruddy sands of Mars, there's a pretty good chance he'll havebeen a Boy Scout.